Having first heard Hard Candy Christmas via Tracey Thorn's album Tinsel and Lights, it was something of a surprise when I found out it was written by Carol Hall for The Best Little Whorehose in...

Because we all need a bit of ultracool Swedish shoegazing electronica in our lives.

Why do today what you can let someone else do for you? Thank you, Dorian Lynskey, for this article on the ever-wonderful Fairytale of New York.

Winter songs are not just for Christmas, ably demonstrated here by Mr David Albert Cook, with a song written by Wombling free’s Mike Batt. A Winter’s Tale didn’t peak until it hit #2 in January...

Because the snow did fall today, and because it brings warmth for a cold evening.

We were promised snow, but no snow fell. This, then, in lieu.

It’s amazing how far people are prepared to go to spin a story round even the shortest of lyrics. That’s the case with the eight or so lines that wind their way through “White Winter...

The warm glow of nostalgia can only last so long. Almost exactly one month, in fact, so it’s time to dig out last year’s gloves, scarves and hats, and the early winter weather coat (no,...

Merry Christmas, everyone! Happy winter holiday season, and all that. Here’s a Christmas gift from me, to replace the “I LOVE XMAS!” cheesefest you no doubt are forced to suffer all round the advent clock....

Home Taping is Killing Music

Finish on a high. I’m not saying this was the best song of the 80s. (It wasn’t even the best REM song of the 80s). I’m definitely not offering it up as the best video...

From Peter, Paul and Mary to Nirvana in a few simple hops and skips? Easier than you think. Early in 1986, Kim Deal answered the following ad placed by singer Black Francis:

Not a title that makes much sense, until you opt for the less common meaning of party, where the party in question is Billy MacKenzie, the lead singer with the extraordinary vocals, and friend of...

Here the former stage Elvis and biggest selling singles artist of the decade shows a darker (not to mention hammier) side, a-breaking and entering in a coat he borrowed from Kirsty MacColl, and does that...

As much as subsequent single “Rio” has come to symbolise the excess of the music industry, the extravagance of expensive video shoots and the empty show of wealth that was the calling card of the...

And now to a section that I was going to call I love 1982, before I remembered that one of the cuts was from a whole year earlier. So here’s a section called ‘I love...

Eco protest time, with Greenpeace favourite “Ship of Fools”, taken from World Party’s debut album “Private Revolution”. Its a bouncy number, the jollity of the melody and backing vocals starkly at odd with the warning...

Bragg’s not a fan of nostalgia, by the way, so I hope you enjoyed that on a historical level, and not with misty-eyed thoughts of Thatcher et al.

Here’s a man who knows a thing or two about protest songs, and mixing music with politics. Released just before the end of the 84-85 Miner’s strike, the proceeds from Billy Bragg’s “Between The Wars...

Having started out with the new romantics, by the end of the 1980s Talk Talk had grown into something startlingly different. Gradually self-deconstructing, the band...